Collect Requirements Process

Collect Requirements is one of the 42 project management processes outlined in the fourth edition PMBOK®.

Collect Requirements is categorized as one of the five Scope knowledge area processes, and one of the twenty Planning processes. The purpose of this process is to define and document the needs of the stakeholders as they relate to meeting the project objectives. This process describes the responsibilities of the business analyst—if one is part of the team. This alone is an indicator that specialized knowledge and experience is especially useful for performing this particular process. Also, Collect Requirements has numerous tools and techniques in addition to three unique outputs. The tools and techniques represent different methods of learning the details of what stakeholders want—interviews, focus groups, facilitated workshops, group creativity techniques, group decision making techniques, questionnaires and surveys, observations, and prototypes. The outputs are: requirements documentation (stakeholders’ needs), the requirements management plan (how the requirements will be analyzed and documents), and the requirements traceability matrix (tracking of requirements throughout the project). This process requires more knowledge and a greater time commitment than does many of the other processes.

This process also benefits from knowledge of Kaizen (from Lean Six Sigma) and the BABOK®’s Requirements Elicitation process (from The IIBA)